Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Psalm 109 - "But I am a Man of Prayer"

LINK: Psalm 109 

BACKGROUND 

Like Psalms 5 and 6, Psalm 109 is an "imprecatory psalm," and it is a doozy! It is the last of its kind in the book of Psalms.

David complained about his enemies, and he "imprecated" God's righteous punishment upon them. David asked God to judge in a case of false accusation. It is quoted in Acts 1:20 also. 

REFLECTION 

It is hard to read this difficult Psalm as I watch the sunrise on a beautiful Saturday morning in Bothell, Washington while on our summer vacation. Life is good! I am with friends and family I love and would never dream of praying curses on anyone!

I have already talked about being the target of lies and gossip in Psalms 5 and 6. Thankfully, I have not been the target of false accusations for many years now because I live in a culture of peace (see Psalms 5 and 6 post) in my home fellowship and church.

But I did have an incident a couple of months ago where a person from my past home fellowship told many others my reason for not wanting to take a particular course of action. Not necessarily a "false accusation," but definitely a false conclusion based on what she saw from the outside. Having been so used to hearing false things about me in the past, I just went to prayer and left it with God. I think I have grown!

As I said in my post in Psalms 5 and 6, I would never pray a curse on anyone, but I want to be a woman of prayer like David was a man of prayer. I want to leave all my stresses at the feet of God!

Jesus said, "But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." That is all we need to do. Love and pray. It is so simple yet so difficult when our reputation is at stake.

APPLICATION 

Do you feel like putting out a fire of false accusations or rumors about you? Just call the Father's Fire Department and leave everything behind in the burning building. God has all He needs to extinguish the flames of false accusations.

PRAYER

Lord, make us men and women of prayer who lay everything at Your feet. Thank You that You stand at the right hand of the needy, to save that person from those who judge his or her soul. Amen.

1 comment:

Carol Ann Weaver said...

I don't think I could ever pray these curses on anyone! But I sure can ask God to let truth triumph over lies. The FFD (Father's Fire Department) is so much better at putting out fires than I could ever be. When I try to do it, I inevitably get burned.